Lamar Alexander starts No Child Left Behind rewrite

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said his first task as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is to rewrite the federal law for K-12 public schools, which expired in 2007.(Photo: File / Getty Images)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Education would no longer be able to pressure schools to adopt certain tests or academic standards under a proposal released Tuesday night by the chairman of a key Senate committee.

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee said his first task as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is to rewrite the federal law for K-12 public schools, which expired in 2007.

He introduced a draft proposal Tuesday to kick off meetings with Democrats and Republicans and a series of public hearings in the coming weeks.

Alexander's ideas take direct aim at the authority of the Education Department, the agency he led under former President George H.W. Bush.

"The department has, in effect, become a national school board," Alexander said.

Under his proposal, federal education officials would not be allowed to push local and state school officials into adopting certain policies in exchange for waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind law, or to qualify for extra financial incentives.

"The secretary really has had states over a barrel, and they've had to do what he told them to do ... in order to keep their schools from being labeled failing schools," Alexander said.

Alexander's proposal would rewrite No Child Left Behind, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002. The law is intensely unpopular among parents and educators who say it focuses too rigidly on test scores and contains unreachable achievement targets.

Testing probably will be controversial within Alexander's committee and the White House. Duncan said Monday a regular testing regime provides important information to parents, teachers and taxpayers about their schools' quality.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Education Committee, agrees the No Child Left Behind law needs to be fixed and testing policies should be reviewed.

"We need to work to reduce redundant and unnecessary testing," Murray said.

Alexander was somewhat neutral on what the new law should mandate on tests.

"Are there too many? Are they redundant? Are they the right tests? I'm open on the question," he said.

He said he wants to retain a requirement that testing data be broken out by subgroups such as race, ethnicity, social-economic level and English-speaking skills.

Murray, echoing administration concerns, said the bill should include expanded access to pre-K and a continued focus on equity by improving school systems with high numbers of minority or lower-income students.

"We need to make sure we're meeting all of our obligations to all of our students," Murray said.

Alexander said his proposal would allow states to decide for themselves whether to adopt the voluntary Common Core academic standards initiated by governors.

"If Tennessee wants Common Core, it should have it. If not, it shouldn't have it," he said.